Uma Thurman in MOTHERHOOD
MOTHERHOOD, written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann and shot on location on New York’s West Village, is a bittersweet comedy focusing entirely on the state of motherhood today and what it’s really like to choose to be a stay-at-home-mom.
Uma, (a mom of two) plays Eliza Welsh, a writer and novice novelist, who has chosen to put her career on temporary hold to dedicate herself to raising her children full time. “However,” Uma says, “She’s struggling with that decision. She feels fulfilled, but at as the same time, compromised by being in total ‘baby-land’ and not stimulating other sides of herself that are obviously important.” As a creative outlet, Uma’s character turns to the increasingly popular activity for SAHM’s of “mommy-blogging.” “Mommy blogging” Uma continues, “is a creative way that fits in with Eliza’s life as a mother. It’s her voice outside of this isolating experience of raising children on her own. Uma enjoyed the character of Eliza and said, “I like that she has flaws. She has anger issues, yet she so loves her kids. She’s funny and charming and real.”
Uma (herself funny, charming and very real) recalled the time on the set when she was required to run endlessly up and down the staircase of a tenement building with a dog, groceries and a baby strapped into her backpack. In fact, it probably wasn’t funny at the time as she nearly threw her back out doing it. But her recollection of having her own babies in that kind of “contraption” always made her feel unstable “as if I were trying to keep a bowl of Ice cream perched on top of a somewhat broken wafer cone. I always felt spindly and top-heavy.”
She did enjoy going back into that phase of mommyhood during the filming and very much enjoyed the young actors who she thought were “surprisingly wonderful.” However, just like all other moms, she feels bad when she has to spend so much time on the set away from her own children and tries to forgive herself when she misses out on some important event. She does make up for it by taking a lot of time off and doesn’t work as often as she used to. “As much as you want to be in 8 places at the same time you just can’t be. You only have one body and one self. But I try to make up for it by having a rich and warm family life with all of the time I do have…and I just try to balance it.”
When I asked her how having children has made her a better actress she told me, “Well, just having kids changes you completely…you are never the same. It’s also made me more appreciative of the times I do get to work, since I don’t get to do it all the time. It’s made clearer lines between my work and my life.” She also very much enjoyed working with Anthony Edwards (see my Anthony Edwards interview, posted September 28th below) and felt that he is “an incredibly honest actor, and a very good father.” She also thinks very highly of his wife (Jeanine Lobell) who is a good friend of hers. So the onset relationship was very comfortable for her.
She also enjoyed the challenge of realizing the character arc that occurs over the course of only one day in Eliza’s life. She explains, “Not a spectacular day like one in which a character collects the Nobel Price, but one real normal day. It’s an amazing way to see a character sort of broken open. It’s tricky, but fun.”
Uma was surprisingly insightful in her response when asked if Hollywood intentionally overlooks motherhood, Uma replied that “Motherhood has often been put in the third shelf. I even had a friend say to me, ‘why would I want to watch a movie about my own boring life?’ I was amazed. Do we so discredit ourselves and our experience of motherhood that it’s slightly annoying to even propose the idea of someone who is actually raising other human beings? Has that become so unimportant in our culture? The experience of motherhood from a thousand different angles, different people and cultures…each mother’s experience…and how we consider it…wherever it may be happening…it’s who we are as a people. It’s very interesting to see different people’s reactions to it. Like it’s either not worthy of consideration or they really appreciate it if they see it. Motherhood is an honest story where the mother is central to the experience; she’s being seen through her actions, instead of being used in the narrative, as is often the case…filling in the blanks about another character.”
Well I for one (and I’m guessing many of you readers) hope that this is just the start of a trend, rather than the exception to the rule. We can all help ensure that outcome by getting our friends together, going out and seeing the movie. MOTHERHOOD opens this weekend (October 22nd) in select cities only, but will open everywhere the following weekend.
Click here to watch the trailer: http://www.motherhoodthefilm.com/video.html
Filed under: children, family, kids, mom, movies, parenting, women | Tagged: Anthony Edwards, Motherhood, Uma Thurman
I don’t usually post on blogs but had to on yours. You have a very distinctive writing style. A lot of people don’t have that touch, they just drone on and on in the most boring way. But not you – thanks! I love visiting other sites about motherhood! It seems like there is constantly new things to learn about it.